World Series of Darts: Raymond van Barneveld stuns world champion Michael Smith on home soil
- Planet Sport writer
- 5 days ago
Raymond van Barneveld rolled back the years to sink world champion Michael Smith and seal his place in the last eight of the World Series of Darts finals in Amsterdam.
The 56-year-old, who reversed a retirement decision at the end of last year, produced a 156 checkout to level at 4-4 before winning the last two legs for one of his biggest wins in recent years.
Fellow Dutchman Michael van Gerwen survived a scare before sinking Ireland’s William O’Connor to join van Barneveld the quarter-finals.
Van Gerwen lost the first three legs of the match before recovering to reel off six of the next seven, including a superb 161 checkout to break throw in the penultimate leg of the match.
Keegan Brown delivered a 164 finish to complete a shock 6-4 win over defending champion Gerwyn Price, while an average of 106.74 saw Luke Humphries claim a dominant 6-3 win over Krzysztof Ratajski.
Rob Cross and Nathan Aspinall also claimed 6-3 wins over Jonny Clayton and Danny Noppert respectively, while below-par Peter Wright had to come from behind to chisel a 6-4 win over Haupai Puha.
Fifth seed Dimitri Van den Bergh completed the quarter-final line-up as he cruised to a 6-1 win over Ricky Evans.
Photo Credit: Kelly Deckers/PDC
